Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.

By Nicholas Jason Lopez

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 10/28/15)

Revenge Is Sweet

– To start things off, we had commentators Kevin Kelly and Matchmaker Nigel McGuinness, no King Corino, which was expected given how last week ended, when he knocked out BJ Whitmer after weeks of pent-up rage. McGuinness refused to mention the disciplinary actions for Corino, which probably means he won’t be seen for a while, which is a shame because King/Corino are as great a commentary team as they come.

– The Donovan Dijak-Moose match was intriguing on paper, given the status of both men as “big and agile” and we got to see that play out somewhat here, but there wasn’t much to gloss over unfortunately. This just seemed like a glorified squash for one Moose, while also giving him the chance to say he took down one of The House Of Truth’s up-and-coming members. A Spear was all she wrote on this one and the ball rolls on.

– The Dalton Castle-Cedric Alexander match had the story headed in of seeing what Castle’s mental state would be since losing his boys to Silas Young as per the stipulation for All-Star Extravaganza VII. This was the chance to see Castle branch out from his flamboyant ways and he came out with no butterfly wing robe, an even more crazed demeanor and just all-out aggression. It seems like they stuck Veda Scott with Alexander so he wouldn’t lose complete relevance. You wouldn’t even know this is the guy who ended Moose’s undefeated streak, and it’s not even like they use the fact. Luckily for him, Scott is a manager who plays dirty enough to get anybody to hate her and she even got physically involved at points. Not much to write about the chemistry between Castle-Alexander but to be fair, that’s not what this was all about. Castle won and built momentum towards the mission of getting his boys back and we know Young will be in action next week when he teams with The Beer City Bruiser to take on The Young Bucks. As for Scott’s unsafe work environment company lawsuit storyline, well… going to see how it plays out, but we’re not sure what will come of it that helps anybody. At the least, the news of a current employee suing the company wasn’t quickly forgotten after the break as it was mentioned a couple times.

– The in-ring segment between ROH World/Television Champion Jay Lethal, Martini, McGuinness and Roderick Strong was a clever way to get to another Lethal-Strong match that won’t hog up the main event picture. Strong made it widely known he wanted one more chance at Lethal and that it wasn’t about the belts this time, which Lethal had a good response that it was always about them. He is the Champ after all. Also liked the little things like Strong crediting Martini for Lethal’s successes and Lethal more than held his own in response. There was good intensity from both men here. Once McGuinness came in the ring, he found a loophole in Lethal’s case of not needing to fight Strong for the World Title by saying no one was in the running for the TV Title since Lethal beat Watanabe. We should expect another in-ring classic between Lethal and Strong, but the idea of them fighting yet again is kind of meh, since it feels like the feud is being cheapened for a lower belt, but Strong actually makes a believable case to uncrown Lethal for his longest-reigning belt.

– The Six-Man Tag main event between The Kingdom and reDRagon/Michael Elgin had elements of little things like Kyle O’Reilly seeking revenge on Adam Cole, a newly purposed Kingdom stable, and Elgin finding himself useful in his role as the Ryback of ROH. This was a slower paced match but still of great quality that finished when the faces broke down the heels for the win. We liked that the post-match development added to what was already a blockbuster main event next week in Cole Vs. AJ Styles, with O’Reilly now in the mix. O’Reilly probably had his best mic work to date here, as you could really feel his aggression, which was obviously needed.

Quick Results

• Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway) def. Donovan Dijak (w/Truth Martini) via pinfall
• Dalton Castle def. Cedric Alexander (w/Veda Scott) via pinfall
• Six-Man Tag – reDRagon/Michael Elgin def. The Kingdom (w/Maria Kanellis) via pinfall